Math

Please respond to at least two of the following prompts:

1. What does calling mathematics a 'language' mean? Does mathematics function in the same way as our daily written and spoken language?

2. Why is it that some claim that mathematics is no more than a 'logical game', such as chess, for example, devoid of particular meaning? If this were the case, how do we account for the fact that it seems to apply so well to the world around us?

3. What is the foundation on which mathematical knowledge rests? Is it discovered or invented? What is meant by this distinction? Can it be applied usefully to other areas?

4. Mathematics has been described as a form of knowledge which requires internal validity or coherence. Does this make it self-correcting? What would this mean?

All Things TED Quarter 2

Post your responses to the 8 TED talks that you watch in this section for 2nd Quarter.  Your responses should be about a paragraph.  These responses should be anything that you think is important, cool, uncool, interesting, uninteresting about the video you watched.

Reason

Please respond to at least one of the following questions.

1. Does knowledge always require some kind of rational basis?

2. If knowledge claims cannot be rationally defended, or can be shown to be irrational, should they be renounced?

3. What may be meant by Nietzsche's comment that 'Rational thought is interpretation according to a scheme which we cannot escape'?

4. Does the nature of reason vary across cultures? If so, explain how and why.